With the rapid development of Internet and the popularity of big-screen multi-function cell phones, a lot of mobile data multimedia services and various high-bandwidth multimedia services have emerged, such as video conference, television broadcast, video on-demand, advertisement, online education, interactive game and the like. These mobile data multimedia services and various high-bandwidth multimedia services not only meet the growing service requirements of mobile users but also bring a new business growth to mobile operators. These mobile data multimedia services and various high-bandwidth multimedia services require that multiple users can receive the same data simultaneously, and have advantages of big data amount, long duration, delay sensitivity and the like compared with general data services.
In order to utilize mobile network resources effectively, 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) proposes an MBMS service, which is a technology of transmitting data from one data source to a plurality of targets; and this technology realizes sharing of network resources (including a core network and an access network) and improves the utilization of the network resources (particularly air interface resources). The MBMS service defined by the 3GPP not only can realize multicast and broadcast of low-rate messages in plain text, but also can realize multicast and broadcast of high-rate multimedia services and provide a variety of videos, audios and multimedia services. The MBMS service undoubtedly follows the trend of the future development of mobile data and provides a better business prospect for the development of 3G digital communication.
At present, the MBMS service is introduced into a Long Term Evolution (LTE) Release 9 (R9) system and is optimized in LTE Release 10 (R10). The bearing of MBMS services in a system is implemented by transmission of both control signaling (also called MBMS control signaling) and user data (also called MBMS service), wherein the control signaling would inform a receiving end (for example, a terminal and User Equipment (UE)) of corresponding control parameters, guiding the UE to a corresponding location to receive the MBMS service (that is, corresponding user data) the UE is interested in.
The control signalling is transmitted through a Multicast Control Channel (MCCH), a Broadcast Control Channel (BCCH) and MCH Scheduling Information (MSI) in the LTE R9, R10 system; and the MBMS service is transmitted through a Multicast Traffic Channel (MTCH).
The MBMS control signalling and the MBMS service are transmitted through an MBMS Single Frequency Network Area (MBSFN Area). The MBSFN Area consists of a series of cells, generally including one or more cells controlled by an evolved Node B (eNB). FIG. 1 shows a logic structure diagram of an MBSFN area; as shown in FIG. 1, this MBSFN area (in the circle) includes 19 cells, wherein an eNB1 controls Cell1, Cell 2, . . . , Cell 6; an eNB2 controls Cell 7, Cell 8, . . . , Cell 13; and an eNB3 controls Cell 14, Cell 15, . . . , Cell 19.
In a conventional art, the transmission of control signalling and the transmission of user data in the MBSFN Area (the MBSFN area consisting of 19 cells in the circle shown in FIG. 1) are conducted simultaneously with the cell or eNB as a unit by adopting the MBSFN technique (with purpose of enabling the UE to obtain corresponding merging gain when receiving data), wherein the MBSFN technique requires each cell in the MBSFN area to send same data content on same time-frequency resources; in this way, the resources of each cell needs to be scheduled and planned uniformly. At present, a Multi-cell/Multicast Coordination Entity (MCE) network element is used to perform uniform scheduling and planning of radio resources, and the specific operation can be referred to international standard 3GPP 36.300 v910.
FIG. 2 shows a structure diagram of an existing MBMS control system; as shown in FIG. 2, in the existing system, MBMS related network elements include an eNB, an MCE, an MBMS Gateway (MBMS GW), a Broadcast Multicast Service Centre (BM-SC) and an Mobility Management Entity (MME), wherein the BM-SC serves as a network element for starting service (Session Start), stopping service (Session Stop), updating service (Session Updated) or supplying MBMS service data; the MBMS GW sends MBMS service data to a corresponding eNB through an M1 interface; and the MBMS GW sends control plane information (for example, Session Start message, Session Stop message, Session Updated message) generated by the BM-SC to the MME through an Sm interface; the MME totally serves as a forwarding network element to forward the control plane information sent from the MBMS GW to the MCE through an M3 interface; and the MCE sends corresponding control plane information to a corresponding eNB; with such processing, the eNB would acquire the MBMS service data and the corresponding control plane information.
In order to manage the configuration of network elements conveniently, an Operation, Administration and Maintenance (OAM) unit is introduced for the network element, for example, an eNB and the OAM of the eNB, MCE and the OAM of the MCE, and the like; through the OAM unit, a network administrator (for example, an operator's network administrator) can perform a series of configuration management operations, such as viewing a status, making a determination and setting parameters, for corresponding network elements conveniently, and thus man-machine interaction and operation maintenance function are realized.
Hereinafter, an MBMS Session Start procedure is described by taking how to transmit an MBMS service in a network for example; FIG. 3 shows a flowchart of transmitting an MBMS service in a conventional art; as shown in FIG. 3. MBMS service transmission (or called bearing) is initiated by a BM-SC; the BM-SC sends an MBMS Session Start Request message to an MME, wherein this message contains a control parameter of the transmitted MBMS service; the MME forwards this Request message to an MCE; than the MCE makes a determination based on whether the MBMS service can be transmitted on an air interface right now (the basis for the determination is whether air interface resources are sufficient), and returns an MBMS Session Start Response message to the MME according to the determination result, wherein the Response message includes the determination result from the MCE; if the determinate result is that the MBMS service can not be born, then this process is ended: if the determination result is that the MBMS service can be born, then the MCE sends the MBMS Session Start Request message to the involved eNB; then the eNB plans to bear the MBMS service on an air interface (the interface from the eNB to the UE) according to the Request message and the eNB returns an MBMS Session Start response message to the network element MCE; finally, the eNB sends an MBMS Session Start request message on the air interface (in the form of MBMS notification and updated MCCH); and next, the eNB starts to transmit the MBMS service data on the air interface; in this way, the bearing of the MBMS service is completed; for further detailed content, pleas refer to 3GPP 36.300 protocol.
From the above content we can see that the MBMS service would be transmitted in an entire MBSFN area. To further optimize the transmission of MBMS service, the industry intends to introduce an uplink feedback mechanism of UE, specifically, the uplink feedback mechanism is mainly used for a network side to acquire the number of users (or number of UEs) who are interested in/receiving each MBMS service; the network side optimizes the transmission of MBMS services by acquiring the number of users, for example, deactivating (or called not transmitting) the MBMS service of which the number of users who are interested in/receiving the MBMS service is relatively small, and activating (or called transmitting) the MBMS service of which the number of users who are interested in/receiving the MBMS service is relatively large. To acquire the number of UEs (exists or not) which are interested in/receiving a certain MBMS service, the network side can send a counting command to enable the UE which is interested in/receiving the MBMS service to provide uplink feedback and tell the current state of the UE receiving an MBMS. The network side can perform an activation or deactivation operation on an MBMS service according to the information (the number of UEs which are interested in/receiving a certain MBMS) acquired through the uplink feedback; in other words, the network side can decide whether to transmit an MBMS service on the air interface according to the information acquired through the uplink feedback.
However, after UE reports an MBMS service that the UE is interested in/receiving to an eNB through an air interface, how to control the activation/deactivation of the MBMS service according to received report information by a network side can not be implemented in a conventional art.